Thursday, October 3, 2013

No Annual Fee American Express Cards - Extra Promotions

Disclaimer: I receive a referral commission for the following link(s) and I greatly appreciate supporting the site: Travelocity American Express, USAA Rewards American Express

American Express runs a lot of promotions throughout the year that apply to every American Express card you have and many times to Authorized users as well.

Authorized Users

As with every American Express promotion, if your card has a unique account number on the front of the card it is eligible for a separate promotion, even if it is an Authorized User on someone else's account.

Authorized users of American Express cards that are processed and issued by American Express will have unique account numbers.

Authorized users of American Express cards that are processed, but not issued by American Express will not have unique account numbers and you are therefore only eligible for one promotion per account.

An example using Visa is easier to understand. Chase Freedom is issued by Chase and processed by Visa or Mastercard. American Express can be either just the processor or also the issuer. It would be the same as if you had a Visa Freedom card instead of a Chase Freedom.

No Annual Fee Cards

The best way to take advantage of promotions is to have many American Express cards and your best bet are cards without annual fees.

Here is a list of American Express cards that are both issued and processed by American Express and therefore are eligible for multiple bonuses per account. For example, I am an authorized user on my wife's cards and she is an authorized user on my cards.